4 d. ago Wet Leg: Moisturizer review – Doritos, Davina McCall and dumb fun from British indie’s big breakout band

(Domino)After winning multiple Grammys and Brits, the Isle of Wight band explore love and sexuality on their second LP – but there’s still room for some barbed put-downsMoisturizer concludes with a track called U and Me at Home. In it, Rhian Teasdale sings about the pleasures of doing nothing over guitars that bend in and out of tune in the style patented by My Bloody Valentine. Nothing much happens in the song – there’s some discussion about possibly getting a takeaway, and a brief nod to the “happy comatose” effects of weed – but it does feature a few lines that function as a kind of Wet Leg origin story. “Maybe we could start a band as some kind of joke,” sings Teasdale. “Well, that didn’t quite go to plan now we’ve been stretched across the world”.You don’t need to be a member of Wet Leg and aware of the circumstances of their formation – apparently the result of a conversation between Teasdale and guitarist Hester Chambers while on a ferris wheel – to feel slightly surprised at...

Events

5 d. ago Salvable review – Shia LaBeouf unexpectedly on hand for gritty British boxing drama with melancholy feel

Toby Kebbell is excellent as an ageing fighter (and care-home worker) getting sucked into crime, with a vivid LaBeouf as his childhood friendBlue-collar chancer gets drawn into criminal underworld; it must be one of the most well-worn plots in cinema, and if debut directors Bjorn Franklin and Johnny Marchetta don’t exactly make it fresh in this character study, then they undeniably lend it a heartfelt vividness. That’s thanks in no small part to lead actor Toby Kebbell, who as ageing boxer and care-home worker Sal holds our attention with a loquacious naivety, despite having been around the block many times. Yakking his way in and out of various marital, family and felonious situations, Sal is a man fundamentally in negotiation with himself.Living in a trailer, Sal is first and foremost trying to salvage his relationship with his 14-year-old daughter Molly (Kíla Lord Cassidy), irritating his ex-wife Elaine (Elaine Cassidy) in the process. Despite his thickening waist, he’s still a f...

Events

1 week ago News | Royal Academy of Music sounds out EcoWorld Ballymore for East London expansion

News | Royal Academy of Music sounds out EcoWorld Ballymore for East London expansion  CoStar

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1 week ago Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo paired for the first time in blockbuster exhibition at the NGV

Two iconoclasts of contemporary fashion will show side by side in the first major Australian exhibition since the London designer’s death two years agoTwo era-defining avant garde fashion designers, Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo, will be brought together in a blockbuster summer exhibition announced on Tuesday by the National Gallery of Victoria.It has been more than 20 years since Westwood’s work has been exhibited extensively in Australia, and the NGV show will be the first since the designer’s death in December 2023.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Pulp’s secret Glastonbury set review – still the magnificently misshapen oddballs of British pop

Pyramid stageReturning to headline the Pyramid for the first time in 30 years, Jarvis Cocker and co are as dark, grubby and joyous as ever, instantly turning the audience to misty-eyed displays of devotion“Sorry for people who were expecting Patchwork,” says Jarvis Cocker, in reference to the mysterious name that appeared on the Glastonbury bill in lieu of Pulp’s. “How did you know we were going to play?”In fairness, Pulp did their best to conceal their appearance at the festival (as Cocker says, it’s 30 years and four days since they were parachuted into the Glastonbury headlining slot, a now-legendary performance that sealed their ascendancy). Keyboard player Candida Doyle even gave an interview to a local Somerset newspaper insisting that while they wanted to play, Glastonbury “weren’t interested”. But clearly no one was convinced – the Pyramid stage is headlining-set heaving. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Skepta’s surprise Glastonbury set review – British rap’s MVP has matchless mic technique

Other stage Filling in last minute after Deftones pulled out, the Londoner shows he’s still top of his game with a kinetic performance that jumps from garage to grime to Fred Again bangersThe Glastonbury “surprise set” has proved futile this year – anonymous billings for Lorde, Haim and Lewis Capaldi were leaked long before the gates opened. Yet there manages to be a genuine twist in the lineup: grime legend Skepta, as a last-minute replacement for alt-metal band Deftones, who have been forced to cancel due to illness. Skepta happens to be kicking around because last night, at Glade, he performed a DJ set alongside Mochakk from São Paulo and Carlita from Istanbul – an advertisement of his house-techno project Más Tiempo, launched with Jammer in 2023, with regular slots in Ibiza.But he’d not required the full force of his production for Glade, so stepping in for a billing just shy of the headline slot on Glastonbury’s second largest stage, Other, is certainly a challenge. On that, of...

Politics

2 w. ago Beastly Britain by Karen R Jones review – how animals shaped British identity

A revelatory cultural history of our relationship with native wildlife, from newts doing handstands to Mrs Tiggy-WinkleWhen newts go a-wooing, sometime in the spring, their signature move is the handstand. Girl newts cluster round to watch, while the boy newts flip on to their creepily human hands and shake their tails in the air. The waggiest newt is the winner, although the actual act of love is a strictly no-contact sport. The male deposits a packet of sperm on an underwater leaf for the female to collect and insert into her own reproductive tract. The whole business is best thought of, says Karen R Jones, as a “sexually charged game of pass-the-parcel”.This kind of anthropomorphising often strikes naturalists as unscientific or even downright distasteful. But Jones is an environmental historian and her methodology allows, indeed impels, her to start from the principle that Britain’s human and animal populations are culturally entwined. Consequently, we cannot...

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2 w. ago A Summer Of FREE London Art Exhibition Stuff – Sophie Parkin

A Summer Of FREE London Art Exhibition Stuff – Sophie Parkin  Artlyst

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2 w. ago Kiefer/Van Gogh at Royal Academy: 'lust for life in the face of death'

Anselm Kiefer is the German painting of powerful intensity who was hugely inspired by van Gogh, as this fine exhibition intensely demonstrates

Events

2 w. ago Royal Ascot jockey banned and given significant fine after winning biggest race of his life

Gary Carroll was recently hit with a ban and fine by the British Horseracing Authority's Whip Review Committee after his win on Cercene in the Coronation Stakes

Events

2 w. ago Kiefer/Van Gogh review – Anselm puts the nightmare into Vincent’s sunflower visions

Royal Academy, LondonThe Dutch artist looks like a prophet of the Holocaust when viewed through the 80-year-old German painter’s dark lens in this startling show, which makes you see how Van Gogh might have painted modern horrorsVincent van Gogh was born in 1853, in the middle of the comparatively peaceful 19th century. If he hadn’t shot himself in a cornfield at the age of 37, and had made it to his 60s, he could have witnessed all that end in the 1914-18 war. If he’d lived to 80, he would have read in his newspaper, at an Arles cafe table, of the election of Adolf Hitler as German chancellor, and in 1945, at 92, watched newsreel footage of the emaciated survivors of Belsen.Odd thoughts, but they are stoked by the Royal Academy’s strange and startling exhibition. This is an intimate encounter between the great living German history painter, to mark his 80th year, and his hero Van Gogh. It juxtaposes his responses to the latter, from teenage drawings to recent gold-spattered wheatfi...

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3 w. ago Serpentine boss Hans Ulrich Obrist's guide to London: the River Cafe and the Zoo's aviary

Kensington Gardens. Whenever I’m here, I spend most of my time in the park. I go jogging at about 6 or 7am, head to the office early, and often hold my meetings as walks through the park. We also install exhibitions, build pavilions and host open-air concerts. In the summer, we often host events in the pavilion until 10 or 11pm. So yes, the park is very much alive, and it’s where I spend nearly all my time.

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3 w. ago North Ayrshire Provost officially opens Scottish Maritime Museum's summer exhibition

'Beneath the Waves' brings together a historic ceramic collection recovered from the shipwrecked SS Eagle by Graeme Bruce, award-winning photography by Lawson Wood and detailed marine sketches by Christina Riley.

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3 w. ago Preview the Royal Academy summer show’s heady new architecture

Preview the Royal Academy summer show’s heady new architecture-and-art mix  wallpaper.com

Events

4 w. ago Royal Academy Summer Exhibition review: 'where is British art going?'

The Royal Academy’s annual summer show is more packed than ever, but hard to get a handle on

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